POT SMUGGLER CLAIMED HE WAS MAKING UP FOR EARLIER FAILED RUN

Alleged ringleader awaits sentencing, former Telus adman gets eight
months in prison

A Vancouver businessman who U.S. agents say was the ringleader of a
botched marijuana-smuggling operation claimed he was a "monkey,"
working off a debt for another load of pot he'd lost in a snowstorm
two months earlier.

According to court documents filed in Seattle last week, Richard
Bafaro, 45, told U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents that,
in February, he and a friend, Jason Metcalf, were using a snowmobile
to search for the lost pot when Metcalf fell and broke his leg.

On Feb. 18, RCMP sent a rescue helicopter to airlift Metcalf out of
the wilderness, said the documents.

"At the time Metcalf was rescued, he'd already spent several days in
the woods, was experiencing kidney failure and almost died," says a
U.S. District Court sentencing report.

Bafaro and four other men were arrested April 26 after agents found
three of them hiding in the snow, along with four backpacks containing
50 kilos of marijuana worth more than $300,000.

Bafaro had rented a storage unit in Bellingham and records showed he
accessed it 28 times between Feb. 23 and March 14.

According to a sentencing memorandum filed Sept. 20, agents searched
the storage locker and seized a snowmobile and "numerous" plastic bags.

"Bafaro said that he heard of individuals using snowmobiles to smuggle
cocaine northbound into Canada," said the court document.

"A nylon bag recovered produced a positive reading for cocaine, a bowl
and a scale produced a positive reading for marijuana and the
storage-unit walls produced a positive reading for
methamphetamine."

Former Telus marketing director Christopher Neary, 34, was sentenced
in Seattle Friday to eight months in prison for his part in the
cross-border smuggling attempt.

Neary had been caught hiding in the snowy forest with two other men on
the Washington side of the U.S.-Canada border in Snoqualmie National
Forest.

A fourth man in an SUV was also arrested and Bafaro was later nabbed
at a Bellingham hotel.

Border agents had followed snowshoe tracks and caught Neary and Daryl
Fontana, a 37-year-old Duncan fitness-centre owner.

Neary and Fontana initially claimed they'd got lost while hiking in
Canada and had accidentally crossed the border.

While they were talking, an SUV driven by Carl Thiessen arrived. He
told agents he was a writer looking for a secluded place to write.

Agents found almost $5,000 in U.S. and Canadian currency in the SUV as
well as several bags of food.

A fifth man, Sinisa Gavric, was found after agents heard branches
breaking.

Four backpacks containing heat-sealed packages of marijuana were found
hidden in the area.

According to court documents, Neary admitted to making the eight-hour
hike, equipped with a machete.

Each hiker expected to get $10,000, said the documents.

Neary was founder of the Vancouver agency Frank Advertising and, while
at Telus, had helped to create the Telus TV ads featuring cute animals.

He was jailed for conspiracy to distribute marijuana by Seattle
District Court Judge Marsha Pechman.

"You may have done this for lots of different reasons but not for any
good ones," Pechman told Neary.

She said the marijuana coming south from B.C. was just one element of
the crime and there was evidence of a larger conspiracy involving the
smuggling of cocaine and methamphetamine into Canada.

Thiessen was sentenced to one year in jail and Gavric got an
eight-month jail term when both appeared in court Sept. 17.

Fontana is due to be sentenced Oct. 1 and Bafaro on Oct. 15.